Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe {Iced Autumn Leaves}

I’ve been meaning to try a new Soft Sugar Cookie recipe for awhile and I’ve been browsing a bunch of sites and recipes, trying to get plenty of tips.

I settled on a recipe that incorporates sour cream and I rolled the dough thicker than I normally do, and cooked it a little less.

Pretty darn perfect. :)

I typed up the recipe suggesting either vanilla or almond extract. I prefer the almond, but my kids seemed to prefer the batch I made with vanilla. Both were good, though. The only thing to remember is that in the icing, you can use more vanilla than almond extract. Most people seem to prefer it when the almond isn’t overpowering.

I used my royal icing for the cookies because it dries hard and shiny – which makes them easy to stack when storing/displaying/gifting – and because it’s easy to dip them right into the icing to make the whole ordeal quicker.

I liked rolling it out between the waxed paper because it was easy to transfer to the fridge on the back of a cookie sheet, and then I could just pull it out and cut out my cookies.

Re-rolling the dough {and having to add the flour to re-roll it} makes the cookies slightly tougher, or less soft, but I didn’t find the difference noticeable, really.

And I’m not about to throw out excess cookie dough.

Make sure they’re nice and thick and that you don’t over bake them. They should NOT be browning on the edges before you take them out – that will eliminate the softness you’re looking for. In fact, they should look slightly underdone when you take them out.

Oh, and the recipe called for parchment lined pans. I did bake the cookies on parchment paper when I used my regular pans, but what is pictured above are my aluminum Doughmakers Biscuit Sheets, which are textured and so the cookies don’t stick. If you don’t have pans like these, use the parchment paper.

I made the icing while the cookie dough was in the fridge and just set it to the side until later.

For best results: cover with plastic wrap when not in use, and make sure to stir it often when dipping the cookies in it.

You can see that I used plenty of gel coloring to make the icing bright and bold.

You can put the icing into a plastic baggy or decorating bag and draw it onto the cookies instead {kind of like my Chocolate Almond Mummy Cookies} but I had been seeking a different method. I found a few places – and a video – where people were suggesting that you just dip the cookies into the icing.

It worked. Rather well.

I found that it worked best if you stirred the icing often, even between each dip, and if the cookies were thick enough, you didn’t even get any icing on your fingers.

If the icing was too thick, the cookie may stick a little, and you chance it breaking. If your icing feels too thick and is pulling back when you try to lift out the cookie, sprinkle in a few DROPS of water and stir to thin it just a bit. Not too much.

And I’ve tried both a skewer and a fork to scrape off the extra icing. I prefer using the fork because it’s better than the skewer at efficiently stirring the color into the icing and re-stirring it every few minutes while icing the cookies.

When you lift up the cookie and scrape off the extra icing, don’t actually touch the cookie with the fork. While still holding the cookie upside down, or tilted to the side, move the fork through any globs of icing that are above the surface of the cookie. If there’s too much icing on them, it will drip over the sides and leave little puddles around the edges.

Then just let them sit on some wire racks until the icing hardens. It will harden on the outside thinly at first, so don’t pack them away or plate them right away if you have the time to wait. Let them sit for at least an hour, but a few hours is ideal. Just in case. You don’t want crushed/smudged icing after doing all that work.

And I might say, “all that work,” but, really, it’s easy to do. It can take awhile due to all the steps, but it is SO worth it.

Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, sour cream, and extract until smooth. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder, then slowly mix into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix. Separate the dough in half and roll each piece out between two sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Refrigerate dough for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Remove dough from refrigerator and cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. Gently gather scraps and reroll on a floured surface. Place cookies an inch apart on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Do not over bake! Take them out when they appear just about to be done, and before they brown. Let cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Mix all of the icing ingredients together with a fork. Start with 3 tablespoons of water and add more, about a 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until you reach a consistency where a thick line of icing slowly and smoothly drips off of the fork when lifted from the bowl. Dye it your desired color, dividing it between separate bowls first if using multiple colors.

Dip the tops of the completely cooled cookies into the icing. Gently pull out the cookie and use a fork or skewer to scrape off excess icing without touching the cookie itself. Set cookie on top of a wire rack that’s positioned over waxed paper or foil and allow to harden completely, letting the cookies sit for at least an hour. Store covered.

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